


Pokefiction #7.1: Pick Your Poison

by BennyTesla14



Series: Pokefiction: Series One [7]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Brief Fluff, Gen, Hallucinations, Mild Language, Poison, Violence, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-23 07:36:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3759958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BennyTesla14/pseuds/BennyTesla14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Infamous crew got some reinforcements, with one follower who is very intoxicating...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pokefiction #7.1: Pick Your Poison

"I like SHORTS! They're COMFY and EASY TO WEAR!!"

The young boy with a bright yellow shirt and blue shorts withdrew his unconscious Rattata and glared angrily at Chris before stomping his foot and walking away, grumbling to himself as he did so.

Chris, who looked very confused, returned Pidgeotto to his Capacity Ball. "Why did he keep babbling about his shorts?" he mumbled to himself. Chris shook his head and turned around, facing Amy, Rai, Josh, and Cal, who sat on the ground and had watched the battle.

"Congrats, Chris. You successfully crushed the dreams of a ten year old. Way to go," Cal said as he stood up. "Can we go now?"

Chris shrugged. "Fine. It wouldn't kill you to lay off the sarcasm, but fine."

The others stood as well as Chris led the way to the front of the group. The gang was on their way to Celadon City for their next gym battles as they made their way through a pleasantly wooded area to Celadon's east.

As they walked and chatted, a thought popped into Amy's head, making her run towards the front by Chris. "Chris!" she whispered harshly. "Code red! I just had a nasty thought..."

"What's up?" he asked in a whisper.

"Well...I was thinking. Our homes are in Celadon City, right?" she began.

"Except for Cal's, but yeah; go on."

"Well that means our parents are there too!"

Chris thought to himself for a moment before shrugging. "So?"

Amy rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Don't you see? What if they track us down and force us to go back home? After all, we  _did_ run away from home, and I can't imagine that that felt too good to our parents," she explained.

"I think they'll be fine," Josh's voice spoke up from Amy's side. Chris and Amy looked to their right and saw Josh and Rai walking next to them. "Josh?" Amy asked. "How long have you been listening?"

Josh grinned. "I heard all of it! I'm like a ninja: silent, and I sneak up on people. But anyway, like I said. I think Dad will be ok with it by now. We're all responsible teenagers, and hey! We've been traveling around for a month now, and nothing bad has happened, so we obviously must be doing something right!"

"What about the time I almost gave Chris a concussion with a rock?" Amy asked.

"Or when we started a forest fire?" Chris added.

"Or when we nearly got killed by a corpse?"

"And when we brought a soul back from the dead?"

"Ok, people, I get it," Josh interrupted, rolling his eyes. "We're not perfect. I mean, none of us are dead, right? And none of us went missing."

Chris nodded his head slowly. "I guess you have a point, Josh. There's no reason why they should force us to come home. That's actually pretty wise of you to say--..."

"Ooh, a pretty tree!" Josh said, becoming oblivious to Chris's admiration as he ran off past the trees.

"Aaaaand it's gone," Amy said with a sigh as she, Rai, and Chris followed Josh into the forest. They quickly came to a large clearing, where, right in the middle of the warm grass, was a very large yet odd tree. Its bark was a faded gray color, and the tree's branches were long and jagged, sharp, scraggly, and completely empty of leaves, with the exception of a few small purple leaves here and there on the branches that danced weakly in the wind.

"Pretty?" Chris repeated. "It looks dead to me."

"Just because it's dead doesn't mean it can't be pretty," Josh said with a shrug as he scanned the tree with his eyes.

"Necrophilia: one, Chris: zero," Amy whispered to Rai, who laughed and shared a fist-bump with her trainer.

Amy took a few steps forward and delicately placed her hand on the trunk of the tree. From a mere touch the tree felt hallow and thin, as if too much pressure could snap the whole thing in half. Amy looked up towards the tiny purple leaves just above her head and reached up and plucked one from the gray branch.

"DON'T TOUCH MY TREE, YOU JERK!!" 

The gang spun around to see a pale-skinned girl (of about the same age but slightly short) standing near the tree line with her arms perched angrily on her hips. Her outfit and hair were out of the ordinary. Her hair was a vivid purple color, drawn to the back of her head in two large ponytails. She wore a black leather jacket over a black and purple striped shirt, and her legs were covered by leggings of the same color and design underneath ragged jean shorts and black converse shoes. With a huff the girl ran forward and in a flash she was right in Amy's face and snatched the leaf from her hand. "What did the tree ever do to you!?" she asked with a scowl.

The gang looked at her confusedly as she walked past them and began examining the tree delicately with her hands, mumbling to herself quietly as she did so. "She hurt you...can't take anymore off...you're my beautiful tree...," she whispered.

Amy cringed and leaned towards Chris. "Gee, it's just a dead tree...what's the big deal?" she asked.

The girl spun around and faced Amy once more. "Excuse you, you don't see me running around poking dead bodies just because they're dead, do you?" she quipped.

"Oh yay, more necrophilia," Rai mumbled.

Amy shrugged, a little timid now. "Well, no...sorry, though. I won't touch your tree again," she answered, still a little confused.

The girl nodded. "Thank you," she said with a glance of judgement as she turned back to the tree. "Isn't it beautiful?" she asked, talking to no one in particular.

"What is?" Chris asked. He didn't ask too loudly; a feeling of apprehension hung in the air around the girl and the tree.

"The tree!" she answered happily. "I poisoned it myself, you know."

Everyone's eyes widened. "You...you poisoned this tree?" Chris asked.

"Yup! It was ugly before; all green, full, healthy. Ugh," she shuttered to herself briefly. "But I fixed that!"

The girl spun around to the group with a toothless grin, making the gang's stunned faces look scared ever so slightly. "My name's Thorn, by the way."

".........h-h-hi, Th-Thorn," Chris said after a long awkward pause. "Do you...poison things often?"

"What's your name?" Thorn said quickly, disregarding Chris's inquiry.

"Chris."

Thorn nodded. "Nice to meet you, Chris! But yeah, I poison things all the time! It's the best; just five minutes ago I poisoned this one cute black-haired kid. He's been asleep like a baby, dribbling sludge from his lips. So adorable," she said fondly.

"What the HELL is wrong with you!?" Amy scolded, taking a step towards Thorn. As she was about to continue to shout, a thought popped into her head. "Where's Cal?" she added, looking around and noticing his absence.

" _THAT_ was his name," Thorn said with a snap of her fingers. "I convinced him to say his name after saying how cute he was."

Amy took a large step towards Thorn, only inches from her face. "Why are you poisoning my friends? And Cal's not the cute one,  _HE'S_ the cute one!" Amy yelled, gesturing a strong thumb over her shoulder towards Chris.

"What?" he asked.

"Not now, Chris!" Amy yelled over her shoulder.

Thorn, who hadn't listened to a single word of Amy's, looked as if she was pondering deeply. "Hm...wait a minute...Chris? Cal?" she mumbled. Her eyes then widened with another revelation. "Wait a minute!! You're the people I'm supposed to be looking for!!" she said exitedly.

"Huh?" the other four repeated.

Thorn smiled widely and quickly shoved past Amy, beginning to pace happily on the grass. "Oh goodie goodie GOODIE! I can get Rocky and Freeze over here and they'll be so proud! Then we can brag to the Elementals, and then the Mystics! The Mystics won't care, but who does!? We got Chris!!" she cheered as she jumped up and down.

Chris's brow furrowed as he frowned angrily. "Look, Thorn. I don't know what the hell you're doing, but it's not gonna continue," he said, almost in a low growl. He walked towards her slowly. "Now you go cure our friend or else."

Thorn noticed Chris as he took out his Pokeball from his pocket. She grinned even wider and took a playful jump back and wagged her finger. "Uh-ah-AH! Not just yet! I have to deliver you to my group I'm in charge of and then our boss, Xavier!" she said happily.

"Xavier!?" Josh said in disbelief. "You're a pawn of the Infamous group?"

Thorn turned to her side and pointed proudly to a shiny, red, metal "I" outlined in black metal sewn onto her jacket's left sleeve. "Badged-up and everything!" she answered. "And, if you'll give me a sec, I have to text my boys. One moment," she added, holding up her finger. Thorn reached into her coat pocket and retrieved her phone and began typing on it, absent-mindedly walking away from the group.

As she was about ten feet away, Chris turned To Amy, Rai, and Josh and gestured to them as the gang huddled-up. "Ok, so clearly this psycho girl is dangerous," he began quietly. "And I don't like the sound of her 'boys' she's texting."

"And she works for Xavier," Amy added. "Obviously she's capable of bad things. And since Cal's in a bad state, so I don't think we have much bargaining room."

"I don't wanna say it, but...I think we gotta do what she says for now," Josh said hesitantly.

"Me too!" Thorn added loudly as she poked her head beneath the linked arms of Chris and Josh. The gang quickly jumped back, making Thorn laugh to herself. "Yeah, I'm pretty nosy. And yes, I heard everything you were talking about. So here's the thing: I may or may not feel bad about poisoning Cal...actually I don't. But, I'm a fun girl, so I'm open to a little bet, and Rocky and Freeze said it would be ok if we play a little game!"

"What kind of game?" Chris asked, folding his arms.

"I'm glad you asked!" Thorn replied. "I have a small challenge for you all. If you pass my challenge, I'll cure your friend and you can go free, until my equally or more dangerous friends track you down. If you don't, I get to take you to Xavier! Sound good?"

Chris looked back towards the gang, who gave him small but quick nods. He sighed and looked back to Thorn. "Fine. We accept your 'challenge'." Chris said quietly.

Thorn grinned and clapped her hands. "Ok! Step one, you need a handicap!" she began. Suddenly, Thorn was on all-fours, her belly an inch above the ground, and zipped almost like a snake across the ground with an unbelievable speed towards the gang. As she was an inch in front of Chris, she sprang to her feet and swung her hand at his neck, letting her long purple nails cut across his neck, making the tiniest cut in his skin. Chris winced in pain as in another flash, Thorn did the same to Josh and Amy. She then slithered back to her previous spot and saw Rai, who looked confused.

"Oh, I'm not gonna poison the Pokemon. You're their only chance of making it to the end," she explained. Thorn then clapped her hands together. "Alright then, maggots. I, Thorn, the leader of the Hazards Division, challenge you. SO! First off, I've injected you all with a benign toxin into your bloodstreams. You will each come to a decision to drink one of three available poisons. One of which will keep the toxic dormant, but the other two will make it worse. You will choose one of your own to drink one of the poisons for the three rounds, and if you don't pick the cure, you'll have to battle one of my Pokemon whilst drugged like a teenage burnout. And if you loose two of the three rounds, I win! Sounds good?"

The gang, with very irritated looks, nodded slowly. Thorn nodded and reached into her interior coat pocket and retrieved a stack of three little paper cups and pulled them apart. In each one, she held her fingernails over them and purple liquid miraculously flowed from the cuticles and into the three cups. Thorn placed them on the grass in front of her feet. "So who wants to go first?" she asked.

The gang turned to each other, all very confused. "I think I'll go first," Josh offered hesitantly as he walked forwards towards Thorn.

"Ah, a very brave candidate," she observed.

"Not brave...just helpful," Josh mumbled to himself as he examined each cup before him carefully. After a moment of deep consideration, Josh bent down and picked up the cup in the middle and drank its contents in one swift motion. As he smacked his lips, he noticed that the liquid didn't taste like anything; just warm, syrup-y liquid. Josh turned to the others with a slight smile. "I guess I picked ri--..." Josh's sentence stopped in between his words and his face wrinkled to his nose. Suddenly, Josh was bending over as he vomited a dark purple liquid onto the grass.

"Ha! You picked wrong, suckah!" Thorn jeered as she took out a Pokeball from her pocket. "So now, it's battle time! Let's see how well you battle when you're under the influence of my poisons!!"

Thorn threw her ball into the air and released her Muk. Josh slowly stood up straight and faced Thorn, wiping away the dark purple ooze from the corners of his mouth, and took out his Capacity Ball. "Don't worry guys," he said weakly over his shoulders. "I got this...let's make this quick." He threw the ball in the air and released Ninetales. She looked around quickly and saw Josh and was shocked by the state of him: poison still dripping from his mouth, his face pale with a tint of purple to it. "Josh!" Ninetales said in distress. "What's wrong!?"

Josh, unable to understand her, waved a dismissive hand to her. "Ninetales, it's alright. I just need you to battle, ok? So let's do this!" he encouraged. Ninetales nodded and turned back to Thorn and her Muk. "Let's start, Ninetales. Use...ugh...uh-oh...," Josh began, but his words were slurred and mushy. The clearing in front of him was changing drastically. Everything was changing colors between purple and green. Everything was seeming to shift in his gaze and twist around in seemingly impossible patterns. Josh quickly shook his head. "Uh...ok, Ninetales, use Flamethrower!" he ordered.

Ninetales crouched down and opened her mouth, releasing a stream of fire at her opponent. "Muk, use Protect!" Thorn said with a grin. In a burst of light, Ninetales's attack collided with a shiny green shield of energy in front of Muk. In Josh's eyes, as the energy shield disappeared, it appeared to him that Muk somehow made copies of himself. Josh squinted and looked at the now three different Muks. "Umm...Ninetales, use Quick Attack on...the Muk to your right!"

"To my...right?" Ninetales repeated, severely confused. "What are you--OOF!"

She was cut short as Muk's Sludge attack slammed into Ninetales's head. Amy, watching with Chris and Rai from a safe distance away, winced as she saw it. "C'mon, Josh. I know you can do this..."

Josh shook his head once more, but his vision didn't improve. "Sorry, Nine...let's use Fire Blast!" he shouted.

Ninetales opened her mouth again and a spiral of flames emerged from it which engulfed Muk. Thorn merely laughed. "It'll take more than that, little boy! Muk, finish this off with another Sludge!" she yelled.

Muk put his grimy hands together and formed a ball of ooze and launched it at Ninetales, hitting her body and knocking her to the ground, unconscious. Josh, with weak arms, returned Ninetales to her Pokeball. Thorn laughed lightly and returned her Muk. "Nice try, kiddo. But, that's one loss. So, time to sleep!" Thorn snapped her bony fingers together and Josh fell asleep, quick as a light turning off, and fell to the grass. Amy quickly ran to his side and knelt down beside him.

Amy slowly looked up and glared at Thorn. "If you hurt my brother, I swear..," she growled.

Thorn scoffed. "What? I don't kill things! I just poison them. If they happen to die in the process, that's not my fault," she said quickly.

Chris stepped forward. "Shut up. My turn," he said loudly.

"Oh, confident, I see," Thorn observed as Chris stepped towards the remaining cups. He looked at them for a good half a second before snatching one up from the ground and downing its contents in one swift motion. He threw the cup from his hands and slowly nodded his head, noticing the lack of poisoning he felt.

Thorn stuck out her lower lip and nodded in admiration. "Wow, you actually picked the antidote. That means you get to battle me whilst level-headed, unlike Shorty over there," she said, pointing at Josh.

"Good. That means this will be over quickly," Chris said confidently. He took his place aways from Thorn and threw his Pokeball in the air, releasing Alakazam.

"Aw, you're going straight for the type advantage," Thorn said with a pout. "No fun! Whatevs, I can still win this!!" She retrieved another Pokeball from her pocket and threw it forward, releasing her Arbok. 

"Alakazam, use Psybeam!" Chris commanded. Alakazam placed his two spoons together and a spiraling purple beam shot from it.

"Arbok, dodge it by using Dig!" Thorn shouted. Arbok, quick as a flash, burrowed its way underground, its tail barely avoiding the psychic attack. Alakazam glanced around frantically, feeling the ground rumble from underneath him. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "Alakazam, as soon as you feel the ground unearth, use Code 14!"

"Code 14?" Thorn repeated. Just as she spoke, Arbok began to shoot out from the ground, Alakazam extended his arms towards the ground and his Reflect became an abrupt barricade underneath his feet. Arbok's head collided with the Reflect, somewhat hurting Arbok in the process. As the poison Pokemon was shoved away from Alakazam, Chris shouted, "Now, use Psychic!"

Alakzam closed his eyes as a large purple wave emerged from his head and shot at Arbok, colliding into him and sending him flying back, unconscious. Thorn stomped her foot angrily as she withdrew Arbok. "Dang it, secret codes should be against the rules or something!" she complained. "Well, that's one win and one loss, so it comes down to you, girly," she said, pointing towards Amy.

Amy sighed. "Really Chris, why'd you have to take the antidote," she mumbled as she walked reluctantly towards Thorn. With another great sigh, Amy bent down and picked up the cup. "Get ready for some messed up crap, Rai," Amy called over her shoulder. Just as she raised the cup towards her lips, suddenly, an Ice Beam attack came from nowhere and struck the cup right out of Amy's hand. Bewildered, everyone looked to the direction of the attack to see Cal standing with his arms crossed harshly, with Milotic next to him.

"Cal?" the gang shouted.

"Cute boy!" Thorn shouted happily.

"Shut up," Cal shouted abruptly as he walked towards the others. "Where'd you get off thinking you could poison me and my friends, you psycho?"

Thorn shrugged playfully. "No reason, just for funzeez," she explained with a grin. By now, Cal was only a few feet in front of her. "You're not getting away with this," Cal growled. He suddenly lunged at Thorn, trying to grab at her arm. Thorn recoiled quickly, making a small hissing noise as she got down to the ground and quickly slithered away near the trees.

"She's not freaking human!" Cal shouted. "You're not gonna get away!" He immediately ran after Thorn as she slithered up a nearby tree. As Cal approached the tree, a large boulder slammed onto the ground to his right and a large beam of ice struck the ground to his left, making icy stalagmites rise from the ground. Cal stopped in his tracks and looked in the direction of the boulder. On the grass a slight ways away was a tall teenage boy with dark brown hair, wearing gray jeans underneath a dark brown leather jacket.

"Step away from the girl," the boy said, his voice low and rumbly.

Cal then looked to the left, and across the ice he saw another teenage boy with icy blue hair, dazzling light blue eyes, a white scarf, light blue shirt, and icy white shorts. "I'd listen to him if I were you," he said with a shrug. The boy's voice was smooth but cold at the same time.

"Freeze! Rocky! My boys!" Thorn shouted happily from the tree. "Good to see ya! Come to help a girl out, I see?"

Rocky rolled his eyes. "How many times are we gonna have to save your backside?" he growled.

"Hey, just take a page from Freeze and _chill out_ , Rocks," Thorn said, laughing at her own pun.

Freeze smiled but rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Thorn. Let's walk away. We'll get them another day," he offered.

Thorn shrugged, bored. "You guys are no fun," she said with a pout. "But fine...aw geez, I wanted to rub this in so hard in the Elementals' and Mystics' faces! Just think, the most under appreciated group would finally get some recognition."

"Calm down, Thorn," Freeze answered. "We'll get them later. Just wait...they'll be weaker than ever, then we'll sweep in for the kill."

Thorn shrugged and leapt down from the tree. "Good point, Freeze. Well then, as for you guys," she said to Cal and the others, "we will meet again. Today was fun! Hope to see you again!"

Freeze and Rocky walked towards Thorn and the three turned and walked through the trees and out of sight of the group. With a grumbled sigh, Cal withdrew Milotic to her Pokeball and walked back to his friends. "Well?" he asked.

"Well what?" Chris asked, walking forward to meet him.

"Feel free to thank me any time you want," he answered with a cocky shrug.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Thanks, I guess," he said quietly. "Also, I think we need a group meeting."

Chris gestured his hand and the two walked back to Amy, Rai, and Josh, and sat on the ground in a small circle. "Ok, listen up, team," Chris began.

"Chris, Josh is still knocked out," Amy interrupted.

"He can sleep through this meeting," he answered. "Anyways, let's move on. So, on a disturbing note, Xavier and the Infamous got some recruits. And on an even scarier note, there are more that we haven't met yet."

"And they have weird powers too," Amy interjected. "Did you see Thorn's nails? She can spew poison from her nails!" She shuddered at the thought.

"That too," Chris said with a nod. "But, we can continue this conversation later. I think we need to get Josh to town real quick. And, follow up question, Cal: how'd you overcome the poison?"

Cal shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it wore off, maybe I used sheer willpower, I dunno." he explained.

The rest of the group shrugged as they stood up. Amy took out her Pokeball and released Arcanine and hugged him. "Hey, Arcanine. Can you do me a favor and carry Josh on your back to Celadon City?" she asked, getting a nod from her Pokemon. Amy gestured to Chris and Cal and the two lifted Josh's limp body and placed him on Arcanine's back. "Thank you," she said with a nod. Amy and Rai walked forward next to Arcanine, with Chris and Cal trailing a ways behind them.

"So what did I miss while I was out?" Cal began, crossing his arms.

Chris shrugged. "Not much. Thorn poisoned some peeps, she ran away, and...oh yeah, Amy called me cute," he finished with a smug grin.

Cal raised his eye brows. "Well that sure is good news for you," he said.

"How so?" Chris asked innocently.

Cal gave him an incredulous glance. "Seriously? This means that your hopeless crush on Amy isn't so hopeless after all," he replied.

Chris mustered the best fake laugh he could (that didn't fool Cal in the slightest) and shook his head. "Cal, I do NOT have a hopeless crush on Amy," he persisted.

Cal rolled his eyes. "Whatever floats you boat, Chris," he said as he walked away towards the others.

Chris remained behind, his face beginning to blush as he looked to the ground. "Like I said...I don't have a hopeless crush on her. It's just a crush," he mumbled.

 

End..........to be continued with Pokefiction #8.1(1): Power Surge (Part One)

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, we've met some new and pretty dangerous enemies. I just feel like adding that these new recruits were inspired by the 7 Deadly Sins from Fullmetal Alchemist (THE best manga ever, btw).


End file.
